Let no one, however, mistake my purpose. The Revelation, of which
Baha'u'llah is the source and center, abrogates none of the religions that
have preceded it, nor does it attempt, in the slightest degree, to distort
their features or to belittle their value. It disclaims any intention of
dwarfing any of the Prophets of the past, or of whittling down the eternal
verity of their teachings. It can, in no wise, conflict with the spirit
that animates their claims, nor does it seek to undermine the basis of any
man's allegiance to their cause. Its declared, its primary purpose is to
enable every adherent of these Faiths to obtain a fuller understanding of
the religion with which he stands identified, and to acquire a clearer
apprehension of its purpose. It is neither eclectic in the presentation of
its truths, nor arrogant in the affirmation of its claims. Its teachings
revolve around the fundamental principle that religious truth is not
absolute but relative, that Divine Revelation is progressive, not final.
Unequivocally and without the least reservation it proclaims all
established religions to be divine in origin, identical in their aims,
complementary in their functions, continuous in their purpose,
indispensable in their value to mankind.
"All the Prophets of God," asserts Baha'u'llah in the Kitab-i-Iqan, "abide
in the same tabernacle, soar in the same heaven, are seated upon the same
throne, utter the same speech, and proclaim the same Faith." From the
"beginning that hath no beginning," these Exponents of the Unity of God
and Channels of His incessant utterance have shed the light of the
invisible Beauty upon mankind, and will continue, to the "end that hath no
end," to vouchsafe fresh revelations of His might and additional
experiences of His inconceivable glory. To contend that any particular
religion is final, that "all Revelation is ended, that the portals of
Divine mercy are closed, that from the daysprings of eternal holiness no
sun shall rise again, that the ocean of everlasting bounty is forever
stilled, and that out of the Tabernacle of ancient glory the Messengers of
God have ceased to be made manifest" would indeed be nothing less than
sheer blasphemy.
"They differ," explains Baha'u'llah in that same epistle, "only in the
intensity of their revelation and the comparative potency of their light."
And this, not by reason of any inherent incapacity of any one of them to
reveal in a fuller measure the glory of the Message with which He has been
entrusted, but rather because of the immaturity and unpreparedness of the
age He lived in to apprehend and absorb the full potentialities latent in
that Faith.
"Know of a certainty," explains Baha'u'llah, "that in every Dispensation
the light of Divine Revelation has been vouchsafed to men in direct
proportion to their spiritual capacity. Consider the sun. How feeble its
rays the moment it appears above the horizon. How gradually its warmth and
potency increase as it approaches its zenith, enabling meanwhile all
created things to adapt themselves to the growing intensity of its light.
How steadily it declines until it reaches its setting point. Were it, all
of a sudden, to manifest the energies latent within it, it would, no
doubt, cause injury to all created things.... In like manner, if the Sun
of Truth were suddenly to reveal, at the earliest stages of its
manifestation, the full measure of the potencies which the providence of
the Almighty has bestowed upon it, the earth of human understanding would
waste away and be consumed; for men's hearts would neither sustain the
intensity of its revelation, nor be able to mirror forth the radiance of
its light. Dismayed and overpowered, they would cease to exist."
It is for this reason, and this reason only, that those who have
recognized the Light of God in this age, claim no finality for the
Revelation with which they stand identified, nor arrogate to the Faith
they have embraced powers and attributes intrinsically superior to, or
essentially different from, those which have characterized any of the
religious systems that preceded it.
Does not Baha'u'llah Himself allude to the progressiveness of Divine
Revelation and to the limitations which an inscrutable Wisdom has chosen
to impose upon Him? What else can this passage of the Hidden Words imply,
if not that He Who revealed it disclaimed finality for the Revelation
entrusted to Him by the Almighty? "O Son of Justice! In the night-season
the beauty of the immortal Being hath repaired from the emerald height of
fidelity unto the Sadratu'l-Muntaha, and wept with such a weeping that the
concourse on high and the dwellers of the realms above wailed at His
lamenting. Whereupon there was asked, Why the wailing and weeping? He made
reply: As bidden I waited expectant upon the hill of faithfulness, yet
inhaled not from them that dwell on earth the fragrance of fidelity. Then
summoned to return I beheld, and lo! certain doves of holiness were sore
tried within the claws of the dogs of earth. Thereupon the Maid of Heaven
hastened forth, unveiled, and resplendent, from Her mystic mansion, and
asked of their names, and all were told but one. And when urged, the first
Letter thereof was uttered, whereupon the dwellers of the celestial
chambers rushed forth out of their habitation of glory. And whilst the
second letter was pronounced they fell down, one and all, upon the dust.
At that moment a Voice was heard from the inmost shrine: 'Thus far and no
farther.' Verily we bear witness to that which they have done and now are
doing."
"The Revelation of which I am the bearer," Baha'u'llah explicitly
declares, "is adapted to humanity's spiritual receptiveness and capacity;
otherwise, the Light that shines within me can neither wax nor wane.
Whatever I manifest is nothing more or less than the measure of the Divine
glory which God has bidden me reveal."
If the Light that is now streaming forth upon an increasingly responsive
humanity with a radiance that bids fair to eclipse the splendor of such
triumphs as the forces of religion have achieved in days past; if the
signs and tokens which proclaimed its advent have been, in many respects,
unique in the annals of past Revelations; if its votaries have evinced
traits and qualities unexampled in the spiritual history of mankind; these
should be attributed not to a superior merit which the Faith of
Baha'u'llah, as a Revelation isolated and alien from any previous
Dispensation, might possess, but rather should be viewed and explained as
the inevitable outcome of the forces that have made of this present age an
age infinitely more advanced, more receptive, and more insistent to
receive an ampler measure of Divine Guidance than has hitherto been
vouchsafed to mankind.